________________
No. 29.]
KING CHANDRA OF THE MEHARAULI INSCRIPTION.
367
No. 29.-A NOTE ON KING CHANDRA OF THE MEHARAULI INSCRIPTION.
By R. D. BANERJI, M.A. A tall slender pillar of iron, almost entirely pure, stands in the courtyard of Masjid Quwwatul-Islam within a few feet from the Qutb Minär. Among the various inscriptions incised on it, the largest is a record of six lines, in characters of the fourth century A.D. The final edition of this inscription is to be found in Dr. Fleet's Gupta Inscriptions. According to this record a king named Chandra had defeated a combination of his enemies in Eastern Bengal (Varga), had crossed the seven months of the Indus during his wars, defeated the Vahlikas, and set up a standard of Vishņu on a hill called Vishņupada. Scholars have offered numerous suggestions concerning the identity of this prince. Dr. Fleet was of opinion that this king Chandra was probably Chandragupta I of the early Gupta dynasty. Dr. V. A. Smith thought that this king Chandra was the same as king Chandragupta II of the early Gupta dynasty and in the first two editions of his Early History of India assigned the inscription on the iron pillar at Méharauli to the son of Samudragupta. Mahāmahopādhyâya Hara-Prasad Sastri is of opinion that this king Chandra is Chandravarman, son of Sirhavarman of Pushkaraná, whose inscription has been found at Susunia in the Bankura District of Bengal. Recently Mr. R. G. Basak has thought fit to revert to the theory of the late Dr. J. F. Fleet concerning the identity of the prince mentioned in the Maharauli pillar inscription and identifies him with Chandragupta I, the father of Samudragupta.
Mr. Basak's paper opens with a statement the accuracy of which is doubtful and which, so far as is known, cannot be supported by Epigraphical evidence. Mr. Basak says: "In the early part of the fourth century A.D. there was a great defeat of the people of Bengal (Variga) by a king named Chandra "; but the record on the iron pillar at Méharauli merely states that the king defeated a combination of his enemies in the Vanga countries. The plural is used instead of the singular, which is significant. The combination may have been of people who had no relation with the people of Bengal, but who had either established small principalities in Eastern Bengal or had been driven to take shelter in that region. There is no mention of the "people of Bengal" in this record, and we are not in a position to determine whether the "people of Bengal" were able to take part in these struggles at that period or not.
The principal argument on which Mr. Basak bases his identification of king Chandra of the Maharanlı pillar with king Chandragupta I of the Gupta dynasty is the statement on the iron pillar inscription that king Chandra "attained sole supreme sovereignty in the world, acquired by his own arm and enjoyed) for a long time." According to Mr. Basak this statement "applies more to an early Gupta ruler of the fourth century than to any local king of any of the small states then ruling independently in Northern India." Mr. Basak assigus no reasons for his statement, and consequently it is difficult to trace the trend of his thought. Evidently the glamour of the early Gupta empire and its glory in later days enticed him to put forward this bold statement. Mr. Basak goes on to state : "So it is very likely that Samudragupta's father Chandragupta I, whom we know to have been the first Maharajadhiraja of the Gapta line, began to establish the empire by going out for making conquests in Bengal, in part of the Punjab and also in the South and perhaps succeeded in incorporating portions at least of these provinces into his own kingdom, which after his death passed into Samudragupta's hands."7 It is true that Chandragupta I, the son of Ghatotkachagupta, was the first Maharajadhiraja of the Gapta dynasty ; but there is absolutely no evidence which can lead us to believe that he was
Corpus Inoriptionum Indicarum, Vol. III, p. 141. • Epi. Ind., Vol. XIII, p. 139. Fleet'. Corpu Insoriptionum Indicarum, Vol. 111, p. 141. Ibid.
• Ibid., p. 140, note 1. • Ind. Ant., Vol. XLVIII, 1919, p. 98.
Ind. Ant., Vol. XLVIII, p. 101.
802
